Battle of Beckingen

The Battle of Beckingen was a battle of the Thirty Years War that occurred on 22 April 1638 when the French general Henri de Carentan led a 12,000-strong army into the Imperial territories along the Rhine. They were met by Graf Heinrich von Dassel at Beckingen in present-day Rhine Palatinate province of western Germany, and soundly defeated, with Carentan falling.

Battle
Having repelled the Spanish invasion of 1636, France invaded the Spanish Netherlands and Imperial territories along the Rhine. King Louis XIII of France's close acquaintance Henri de Carentan led 12,000 French troops into the Rhine Palatinate, occupied by the Habsburgs. Imperial nobleman Heinrich von Dassel and 15,000 Imperial troops prevented their advance on Cologne by forming a defensive line at Beckingen. The Germans formed a "tercio" and held off French cavalry attacks, and Carentan was speared in the face. France's arnmy was repelled with 2,000 dead, while an equal amount of Germans were lost.